Strongberry's first episode of "Sweetheart Service" is delightfully lighthearted, setting up my most beloved of tropes: fake dating. Easygoing Yooha (Kim Hunseo) needs money and works multiple gigs via a Strawberry (Strongberry??) app that is similar to Taskrabbit. Whether it's unclogging a toilet or posing as a nude art model, no job is beneath him.
He takes the job of pretending to be a fake boyfriend to a woman to blow up her blind date with the deliciously bespectacled tech bro Minwoo (Lee Jaehyeop), who can't be bothered to make a good impression either. We learn later that of course he's the eldest grandson of a wealthy muck-a-muck and thus has the burden of marrying in order to carry on yadda-yadda patriarchal bloodline garbage.
Before Minwoo hits upon the idea of hiring his own fake boyfriend to hold off his family, however, he decides to drink away his sorrows at a local watering hole run by dishy bartender Taeha (Jung Myeongcheol). As one does when full of alcohol and faced with a guy in a waistcoat wiping down a bar with forearms exposed, Minwoo asks for advice: Is marriage or dating worth it?
What follows is a the exchange that I hope will be an ongoing theme, which is using cocktails as metaphor.
Taeha:
"Drinks like water or soda are simple. You just drink them as they are -- no need to mix -- clean and efficient. But cocktails are different. Different ingredients mix and blend. Sometimes they clash, creating a story in each sip.
"I think dating and marriage are similar. When people who don't seem to match collide, mix and blend, they create a unique flavor just for them.
"Sometimes it's too bitter, sometimes too sweet. But when you find the perfect combination, you can't forget the taste."
The drink he's mixing is a grapefruit cocktail known as Salty Dog -- which also happens to be the title of the episode.
What I really appreciate about this is that when it comes to BL as a genre, I think sometimes overly saccharine storytelling -- with TikTok-worthy fanedit moments -- tries to pass as romance. But the stories that acknowledge the imperfections in both people and still results in a relationship are the ones that resonate with me the most. As I've grown older, my literal palate has also changed; now I have a taste for bitter (Fernet!)
Sometimes I don't need a metaphor to be belabored. Make it simple, straightforward and tasty.
건배!!